Michelle Pennington is glassblower and designer who operates her studio called High Gravity Glassworks in Shreveport, Louisiana. Having grown up in Toledo, Ohio, also known as the glass city, it was only a matter of time before she would discover glass for herself. She studied graphic design in her undergraduate program at Bowling Green State University, but took her first glassblowing class her last semester and completely fell in love with the material. She continued to study glassblowing after graduating with her BFA at craft schools like Corning Museum of Glass and Pilchuck Glass School with artists like Martin Janecky and Silvia Levenson. She learned traditional glassblowing techniques influenced by Italian and Czech masters and earned an Enhanced Graduate Teaching Assistantship to attend the University of Texas at Arlington. She graduated with her Master's degree specializing in glass and has continued to create glass art and teach glassblowing classes in Shreveport at her studio.